The Mets' Beacon of Hope

Matt Harvey makes a start for the Binghamton Mets on Wednesday.
Martin Griff/The Times of Trenton

By

Brian Costa

August 13, 2011

TRENTON, N.J.—The field was cloaked in darkness, with the lights long since turned off. But outside Waterfront Park, a minor-league outpost on the banks of the Delaware River, two dozen fans lurked.

They waited with pens and baseballs and cards in hand. They waited until 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, when the 6-foot-4 silhouette of Matt Harvey finally emerged from the players' exit. "That's him!" a teenage boy said.

It took 10 minutes for Harvey, the Mets' top-rated prospect, to finish signing autographs. But it took only a moment for him to hear the inevitable question, the one he hears about twice a day now, in one form or another.

"So, big leagues next year, huh?"

Harvey, a 22-year-old pitcher, hasn't even finished his first minor-league season. He was promoted to Double-A Binghamton less than two months ago. But with the Mets effectively out of playoff contention, fans are looking to the future. And they want that future, in the form of Harvey, to arrive soon. Preferably, tomorrow or the next day.

"One guy came up to me the other night and was like, 'Are you getting called up tonight?'" he said. "I'm like, 'tonight? No.'"

The question was premature, but not entirely outlandish. Harvey, whom the Mets selected seventh overall in the first round draft of the 2010 draft, was recently ranked by Baseball America as the 30th best prospect in the game. In 14 starts with Class-A St. Lucie, he was dominant. He posted a 2.37 earned run average and averaged 10.9 strikeouts, only 2.8 walks and 0.6 home runs allowed per nine innings.

ENLARGE

Matt Harvey was drafted No. 7 overall by the Mets last year—the team's highest draft pick since 2004 when they took Philip Humber at No. 3.
The Times of Trenton

In eight games with Binghamton, Harvey has a not-so-gaudy 4.99 ERA, but that figure is somewhat misleading. His strikeout, walk and home run rates—which are considered more telling measures of performance—are almost identical to what they were in Class A.

Mets general manager Sandy Alderson said the team is unlikely to call up Harvey when rosters expand in September. But a promotion to the majors at some point in 2012 appears likely.

"Once a guy gets to Double-A, anything can happen," Alderson said. "I think 2012 at some point is conceivable. I think definitely 2013 would be an expectation on our part."

Alderson was reluctant to speculate much about Harvey's future. He is wary of fans expecting too much, too soon. But there is only so much he can do to contain the hype.

The Mets haven't had a true homegrown ace since Dwight Gooden. Whether he earns that label or not, for now, Harvey is now a symbol of hope.

Zack Wheeler, the pitching prospect the Mets got from San Francisco in the Carlos Beltran trade, is another. But Harvey is viewed as further along in his development.

He throws his fastball in the range of 94 to 96 mph. His best off-speed pitch is his curveball, which Binghamton manager Wally Backman said is already good enough to fool major-league hitters. Harvey also throws a slider. And he's been working on a changeup, which he hopes will become a more effective complement to his fastball.

Backman said he envisions Harvey as a No. 2 or No. 3 starter in the majors. But as he demonstrated in his start Wednesday night, Harvey is still learning how to pitch like one.

Facing the Trenton Thunder, the Yankees' Double-A affiliate, Harvey allowed three runs on six hits in five innings. He still struck out six, did not walk a batter and did not allow a home run. But he left some pitches up in the strike zone, mistakes that could prove more costly against major-league hitters.

"It's about consistency, being able to locate your fastball to both sides of the plate and pitching down in the strike zone," Backman said. "And when he does that consistently…" Backman held out his hand and lifted it skyward, like an airplane taking off. "whoosh. Right to the top."

Harvey and Backman, a former Mets second baseman, talk often about how to approach hitters. A sponge for information, Harvey likes to ask hitters about which pitches they hate to see in each count. He had similar conversations last summer with Daniel Murphy, who was rehabbing from a knee injury at the Mets' minor-league complex.

But Harvey's greatest coaching influences do not work for the Mets. They are employed by his agent, Scott Boras. Bill Caudill, a former major-league pitcher and Boras' first client, serves as Harvey's personal pitching instructor. They talk two or three times per week, he said.

And for help with the mental side of pitching, Harvey consults with sports psychologist Don Carman, another former pitcher employed by the Boras Corporation. They talk on the phone in the days before and after his starts.

After his sophomore year at the University of North Carolina, Harvey found himself losing focus while pitching in the Cape Cod summer league. With Carman's help, he developed an almost robotic mental approach.

"What I decided to do is put a game inside a game and pitch inside of it," Harvey said. "For that one batter, I have my one game. I say all right, it's me versus you, I'm not going to let you get a hit off me. If I win that game, then I go to the next one. If I lose that game, I still go to the next game. I feel like that keeps me going pitch to pitch and not letting me get too far ahead of myself."

That approach is useful in thinking about the state of his career. He believes he is almost ready to pitch in the majors, but he tries not to think that far ahead. He said he does not follow the big-league team closely. After Wednesday's game, as he sat by his locker, highlights of the Mets-Padres game played on a television overhead. Harvey didn't even look up.

Still, reminders of what the future holds are impossible to avoid. As he got up from his seat in the dugout Tuesday afternoon, he heard someone say, "Hey, Matt…"

Two middle-aged men and a boy stood in the front row of the stands along the third-base line, holding out a pen and a sheet of baseball cards. As Harvey began walking toward them, he smiled.

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